Diplomacy

Australia is one of the most highly globalised nations on the planet and therefore extremely dependent on an effective and active diplomacy. In a region undergoing rapid and transformational change, where shifting power balances are creating uncertainty about the existing regional order, Australia’s security and prosperity rely heavily on its international networks and relationships with both near neighbours and geographically-distant allies.

The Lowy Institute has conducted ground-breaking comparative research on Australia’s diplomacy and that of like-minded nations. It focuses on public diplomacy and Australia’s soft-power capabilities, leading-edge research on ediplomacy, consular affairs, international broadcasting, leadership, and resourcing of Australia’s international policy infrastructure and its overseas network. The Institute’s work has been instrumental in shaping a parliamentary enquiry into Australia’s diplomatic network, providing independent, non-partisan policy options to steer Australia’s diplomatic future.

In 2016, the Lowy Institute released the Global Diplomacy Index, an interactive web tool which maps and ranks the diplomatic networks of all G20 and OECD nations. The interactive allows readers to visualise some of the most significant diplomatic networks in the world, see where nations are represented – by city, country, and type of diplomatic mission – and rank countries according to the size of their diplomatic network

Australia’s decision on 28 January to formally recognise Juan Guaidó as interim President of Venezuela is a reversal of previously long-standing government policy to only recognise States and not governments.
Adopted by the Hawke government following a Cabinet decision in 1988, that policy has

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook post, marking 15 years since he hatched the social network in his Harvard dorm, claims Facebook has the potential to be “profoundly positive” for years. Certainly, Facebook has changed diplomacy by changing the way people connect and communicate.
But, despite

If cultural dynamism and persuasion can trump military might, as the adherents of soft power would have it, the South Pacific is the place to see this played out. Pacific island nations face choices like never before as China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the US, the UK, and France seek to exert

The findings of two related government reviews – on international broadcasting, and soft power – should offer an incoming Australian government the potential of a substantial policy reset following the general election in May. Specifically, they may help clarify the purpose and place of state-

Some, perhaps surprising, support from Bahrain to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision for Australia to formally recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel while leaving Australia’s embassy at its existing location in Tel Aviv. According to a tweet translated by Al Jazeera, Bahrain’

It is both apt and overdue that veteran ABC correspondent Sean Dorney was last night awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Journalism at the 2018 Walkley ceremonies. Judged by the trustees of the Walkley Foundation, this award not only recognises Dorney’s extraordinary body of work built over

The statements about the importance of the Pacific to Australia by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne, backed by the Foreign Policy White Paper last year, are most welcome. The further decisions announced at APEC last week did even better. The fact is, Australia has

Scott Morrison’s recent response to Australia’s receding “voice” in the Pacific appears to be a Home and Away solution – namely, according to the Prime Minister, the provision to “our Pacific family” of more stories, news, drama, and sports from Australia’s commercial television

Successive federal governments have declared Australia to be an “energy superpower”. The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper is the most recent example, highlighting the size of Australia’s exports of coal and liquefied natural gas.
Yet Australian foreign policy has often overlooked energy

Last month, billboards popped up around Australian capital cities, urging commuters and shoppers to “see the difference” as a panda and a kangaroo writhe in a harmonious embrace, while marsupials that look to have been penned by Guardian cartoonist First Dog On The Moon look on.
Most commuters

The US appointed its first openly gay ambassador in 1999. President Bill Clinton gave James Hormel a recess appointment as US Ambassador to Luxembourg after two years of a blocked Senate campaign. Since then, an additional six openly gay male ambassadors have been appointed by the US, including

Every few months, the Australian media raises the embarrassing absence of an American ambassador in Canberra. As of last month, Australia was one of 34 vacant ambassadorial posts across the globe. Commentators with expertise on each of these vacant posts question the commitment of the United States

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) soft power review comes at a time when information is rising as an instrument of foreign policy. DFAT faces new challenges and therefore needs a renewed vision and mission for its soft power. The review is sorely required.
In orthodox

The Department of Communications is now reviewing submissions on the issue of Australian Broadcasting Services in the Asia-Pacific region. This is timely. As always, communicating Australia’s views and voices to the Asia-Pacific region is important. And, more than ever before, finding effective

Australia’s international voice, once strong, influential and broadcast across much of the Asia-Pacific, has become little more than a croak into the ether.
Substantial cuts to funding, waning government commitment, changing national priorities, and digital disruption have resulted in Australia

The Australian Embassy in Washington has been promoting “100 Years of Mateship” between Australia and the US in the lead-up to the centenary of the Battle of Hamel in the First World War, which has been commemorated this week.
The Embassy has come up with a list of 15 eminent

As prime minister, Tony Abbott once called disaster response “an antidote to pessimism”. No less than eight countries – including China, the US, South Korea, and New Zealand – had gathered in the desperate search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 across the vast reaches of the

Before a ball had even been kicked at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, star Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah was courted for a photo-op with Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Big international sports tournaments have been a familiar platform for countries to attempt to normalise global

You thought the PyongChang Winter Olympics was this year’s premier sporting event with diplomatic characteristics? Think again.
The real deal began on Thursday night in Moscow, when Russia trounced Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the first match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The stories, both sporting and

The Lowy Institute has released an updated and expanded 2017 Global Diplomacy Index, which now maps and ranks 60 of the world’s most significant diplomatic networks. For the uninitiated, the Global Diplomacy Index is an interactive map that plots around 7000 individual embassies, consulates and

George Brandis might be on the way out of parliament and bound for London, but his future is still very much hostage to the political fortunes of Malcolm Turnbull.
In years gone by, the former attorney general could ordinarily have expected to be happy and secure for at least three years in his

Australia has bet the farm on Donald Trump.
That’s the obvious headline to describe this Foreign Policy White Paper, although the gamble isn’t on Trump personally, but rather as a show of faith in the broader character of the US system of government.
The key sentence stands out on page 26

Throughout the course of 2017, Australia and Timor-Leste have negotiated in international conciliation proceedings to resolve their protracted disagreements over hydrocarbon resources and maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea.
So far, we know the two countries have reached an agreement on maritime

Twice I interviewed Zimbabwe’s Morgan Tsvangirai, the man who has struggled to bring to a close the long and brutal rule of Robert Mugabe. The first time, in 2007, the bruises has only just faded from Tsvangirai’s face after a savage beating by Mugabe thugs. By the second time, five years later

Australia was not the only country to waltz onto the UN Human Rights Council last week with only cursory scrutiny of its human rights record.
In fact, most of the Council’s current and incoming members have failed in some way to live up to the 'highest standards in the promotion and protection

This month I joined the judging panel for the annual Lowy Institute Media Awards. No spoilers – the award ceremony takes place this Saturday, 23 September, and our lips are sealed right up until the winner is announced. But I can say that the quality of the nominees was fantastic, and I

If Australia’s economic future lies in Asia, then managing the risk of financial crises in the region should be a top concern. Especially as any crisis could also have significant geopolitical consequences.
In an analysis for the Lowy Institute, Barry Sterland looks at what Australia can do

It was only a few years ago that e-diplomacy was being heralded as an unalloyed force for good. This 21st Century form of statecraft would bring transparency and openness to the closeted world of international affairs. Governments that colonised the internet would come to enjoy a strategic edge,

I met with a senior member of the foreign diplomatic corps in Canberra earlier this week for a wide-ranging discussion about the challenges for modern diplomacy and the way in which advanced economies such as Australia are going about addressing them.
The old chestnut – the drive for innovation

Boris Johnson clearly has a soft spot for Australia.
No white bread politician, his whole manner is a breath of fresh air. Not only was he smart enough to renounce his dual citizenship, he has turned dishevelment into an art form.
He was at it again last night, delivering the 2017 Lowy Lecture

This post is part of a debate on Australia’s foreign policy White paper 2017. Click here for other debate posts.
When Foreign Minister Julie Bishop put economic diplomacy at the centre of Australian international relations in 2014, I suggested this might just be a canny way for a globe-trotting

In her Fullerton lecture delivered on Monday in Singapore, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop gave a full-throated defence of the prevailing regional order. From what is conceptually speaking the most interesting foreign policy statement by a senior Australian official in a long time (even if it was

The monthly Digital Diplomacy links will be replaced by Cyber Influence links. These links will report on the growing collection of international actors (from foreign and defence ministries, intelligence agencies, civil society, media groups and hackers) using and manipulating cyberspace

This week global PR firm Burson-Marstellar launched its 2017 World Leaders on Facebook report. The study contains some findings that are anticipated and some that are surprising.
First, there are no shocks at the top of the list. Narendra Modi leads: his personal page is number one (40 million

This post is part of a debate on Australia’s foreign policy White paper 2017. Click here for other debate posts.
Australia has a great story to tell the world, a powerful 'strategic narrative' that is a potent source of soft power. But it's increasingly difficult for this story to be heard,

In August, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that the Turnbull Government would produce a new foreign policy white paper. The Minister described it as a 'philosophical framework to guide Australia's engagement, regardless of international events'.
The world is changing so fast it is

Denmark’s recently announced plans to appoint a Digital Ambassador appear to be a world first: an ambassadorial representative from a nation state dedicated to an industy sector. In this case, the Ambassador will liaise with the world’s digital and tech giants - including Apple, Google and

This week the ABC pulled the plug on shortwave transmissions to its Radio Australia (RA) audiences across the Pacific and South East Asia.
One by one, the lights of RA, Australia’s longest-running international public broadcaster, are being extinguished. The decision by the ABC to decommission

This time last year, when former Chief of Army Lt Gen David Morrison AM (Rtd) was announced as Australian on the Year he described the benefits of embracing diversity in simple and powerful terms: when people have the chance to reach their potential, we all benefit. This applies as much to diplomacy

A week ago Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade launched its first digital media strategy and accompanying blog.
It's about time. Digital diplomacy is expanding, the pace of change is picking up, and DFAT - which spent two years developing this strategy - is late to the party. The

While the intensity of violence in Syria may wind back in 2017, the transactional qualities and dilemmas of Middle East politics and diplomacy will be even more evident.
The Syrian government’s ruthless application of siege warfare against the rebel forces in East Aleppo is expected to see the

By Angela Han, an intern with the Lowy Institute's East Asia Program.
When President Rodrigo Duterte stood in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing this October and announced that 'Duterte of the Philippines is veering towards China', he received thunderous applause.
After going on a tirade

On 6 December, Natasha Stott Despoja AM, Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls, looked at destinations reached and travels still to be undertaken in the global journey towards gender equality.&nbsp

Last week, I was on a panel at a conference for the Public Service on 'Thinking Big', run by the Institute of Public Administration. With other panellists, including Frances Adamson (secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), we talked about the challenges facing the public sector,&

In a special issue of Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, the electronic journal of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Alex Oliver argues that embassies are still essential in today's diplomacy. The full article (translated from the original into German) can be read here. The

Getting the US and Russia to work together in Syria was always going to be difficult. Now it looks as though a diplomatic solution was from the start a mirage at best and a trick at worst.
Almost every day brings news of the further breakdown in US-Russia relations. As the death toll from Russian-

The former Member for Longman's surprise visit to Iraq is drawing plenty of criticism. The ALP's Penny Wong was perhaps the most savage, advising him that Iraq was not a 'place for people to act out their boyhood fantasies', while the foreign minister was also willing to criticise her former

The President's office is at the top of Mexico's digital diplomacy efforts.
America's Defence Intelligence Agency tweeted, deleted then apologised for a tweet critical of China stemming from the G20 staircase mishap.
The Economist's data team looks at the Russian Government's media